Morris Minor Owners Club

After a trip with steam pouring out of the radiator over flow,and no water I decided to check out the symptoms on this site and found the proberbility is the head gasket on its way out.

Have stripped the head today,but thought the gasket looked ok. Very coked up inside with alot of what looks like white scale on the valves and pistons.

Anyway my main concern is when removing the pushrods, there was a distinct clatter as if something had dropped as I remove them.

What was it !

What is the best way to clean up inside, any suggestions

Cheers Paul...

The clattering noise was probably a cam follower dropping down, you will need to take the cover plates off the side of the block to find out which one it was and re-fit it.

As for de-coking try one of the rotary wire brushes that fit in a drill, probably best to regrind the valves before you re-fit the head.

Thanks Welung666, I will have a look at that, mean while showing how green I am how do you grind the valves ? is this something I can do at home ?

Yes can be done at home, if you have a Haynes book of lies it will tell you how in there.

Why does that not fill me with confidence

It's simple really, you'll need a valve spring compressor to take off and re-fit the valve springs, some valve grinding compound and the wooden grinding stick. about an hours work to remove, re-grind and re-fit all 8

With the fear of sounding stupid, removing the valves, does that mess up the timing ?

Not at all, the push-rods control the valves via the cam, which is connected to the crank via the timing chain, you won't be touching that doing a head gasket.

Fantastic, I'm going to crack on with that then, Cheers...

Oh, is there anything else I should be doing while its off

Bypass hose!!! between the head and the water pump. Easier to cut a piece of standard heater hose for that as there have been issues with the concertina type.

Will replace this as well, Thanks again welung666

Please call me Lee, it's easier to spell

You still need to find why the engine was boiling!! So while doing all this I suggest you give the radiator a jolly good reverse flushing with a garden hose - and it may be worthwhile looking at the water pump to see if all is well there. And - for a beginner - it's going to take a lot longer than an hour to grind in those valves !

You still need to find why the engine was boiling!!

Ive known faulty timeing can heat up a bit, but usually its a rad problem.

While you have the head off, check the water galleries in the face of the block and the head aren't blocked with limescale. If necessary you can carefully run a drill bit through them (don't enlarge the holes, just get rid of the scale). Might be worth changing the thermostat too in case the old one isn't opening when it's supposed to.

Thanks all, I've purchased a valve compressor,paste and stick thing. Managed to carefully remove 3 valves, bagged up and labeled them in order so I dont mix.
Will be grinding soon just taking it steady at first. ESM have dispatched new thermostat today.

Will certainly flush rad before putting back, however there is quite a bit of limescale but I dont think is enough to impare the flow.

I'm going to whip the water pump of and have a look at that as well.

keep you posted

Paul